Sri Lanka’s GDP grows 4.4-pct in 2016, dips on agriculture

Mar 16, 2017 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Gross Domestic Product grew 4.4 percent in 2016, down from 4.8 percent a year earlier, with drought and floods leading to the dip, the Department of Census and Statistics said Wednesday.

“Sri Lanka experienced inclement weather during the year 2016, particularly, the severe flood experienced in the second quarter of 2016 and the drought that prevailed during the year, may have had an impact on the agriculture activities of the country,” the department statement said.

“This is the weakest performance since 2013.”

However, it said that the year ended positively with the fourth quarter reaching 5.3 percent growth driven by the industry and services sectors that grew 9.2 percent and 4.6 percent respectively.

The Gross Domestic Product for Sri Lanka for 2016 (January to December) at constant (2010) price has reached up to 9,012,026 million rupees.

Among the industrial activities, the construction activity grew 14.9 percent while the sub-activity mining and quarrying recorded 14.4 percent high growth rate.

Manufacturing has grown by 1.7 percent with manufacture of basic metal and fabricated metal products up 28.7 percent, rubber and plastic products up 17.9 percent and machinery and equipment has grown rapidly during 2016 when compared with 2015.

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